Just Pluck These Strings One by One
by SwimmingBoiWonder
Summary: She thinks it's the end of the road with Luke. She just wants to have have fun again and watch movies, and she thinks Percy can help her. OR - Annabeth recently broke up with Luke. She thinks she loves someone else, but it's not easy moving on. Credit to MaydayParade8123 for starting the trend of the OR- fanfics.


Just Pluck These Strings One by One

_She thinks it's the end of the road with him. She just wants to watch movies in a movie theater again. She wants to have fun, and she's only really known fun when Percy's around. OR – Annabeth breaks up with Luke. She thinks she's ready to move on, but it's not easy. _

I'm trying to write something like MaydayParade8123 and though Mayday may not appreciate me writing something along the lines of some of her stories, she's started a trend.

* * *

It's another fight, she thinks. Another stupid fight. Why can't Luke just realize that being in an 18-month long committed relationship means spending time with each other just a couple days every week? It's not like she's asking him for much. In fact, she doesn't think she expects that much. She can't remember the last time she's seen a movie in a movie theater. She's sick of watching the same old romantic comedies at home trying to get over her latest fight with Luke. She thinks it's the end of the road for them.

"Look, Annabeth, I told you this _weeks _ago. I have mid-terms and I have to study for them! They're huge if I want to pass the first semester and-" Another lie. She shakes her head, and she gets frustrated when she sees his anger.

"Save it Luke. You went to a party last Tuesday supposedly studying for that big Calc exam when I heard that the Calc teacher is out for 3 weeks taking care of her new born baby, do you expect me to believe-"

"Annabeth, I'm serious this time. I don't think jeopardizing my grades to hang out with-"

"Save it. I can't trust you anymore, can I." It's not a question, its more of a statement. Even if its grammatically incorrect. "You have one mid-term in U.S. History, your _best_ class Luke. Can't you just watch one movie with your girlfriend?"

Silence. She thinks it's annoying; all the silence between conversations when it's meant to be noisy. She thinks she's had enough.

"Annabeth, I'm studying. I'm-"

"Bye Luke, have fun "studying." She thinks Luke gets the picture. She's more frustrated with herself for sticking to such a poor boyfriend more so than sad or angry. She feels like she's restricted herself with him.

It's as shes walking away that she seems _him._ He's grown taller and has more muscle. She's impressed, but how come she's never noticed? He's looking around for someone. She thinks she hears "Where's Mr. Teal?" She laughs when his voice cracks. She laughs even harder when the first person he asks _is _Mr. Teal. He laughs for 5 minutes straight. Annabeth walks down the halls with a smile so big it feels like her cheeks could fall off.

* * *

She felt Thalia sit down by her at the lunch table, but that didn't break away her dreamy stare at Percy.

"Hello? Helloooooo? Earth to Annabeth?" Thalia's hand was waving up and down in front of her face, and it annoyed her to no end. She was blocking her view of Percy.

"What do you want? I'm here Thalia-"

"Jeez, no need to be in a bad mood. What are you staring at? Oh." She practically hears Thalia's smirk when she realizes that Thalia's figured it out.

"Thalia, it's not what you think-"

"Oh, it's not? It seems almost as if you're staring at my cousin. Who you used to be friends with." She feels a stinging sensation in her chest.

"Okay, so?"

"Okay… so what?" Annabeth laughs this time.

"Nothing, I'll tell you when the times right."

Thalia, looking satisfied, nods her head and heads to the counter to get napkins. Annabeth returns back to looking at him in all his glory. It's been a while, she thinks.

* * *

"Annabeth, what's so urgent that you needed me to meet you in the Janitor's closet of all places god I hate the smell of-"

" I want to break up with Luke." She says that way too fast for Thalia to understand. The confused look on Thalia is hilarious, she thinks.

"I want to break up with Luke."

"Oh no, I got that part."

Moments pass by before anyone says a word again.

"So…"

"So, that's it? You're just going to break up with the guy who you've had a crush on for more than 5 years, ever since 5th grade? You threw away Percy on the side for him and I've tried to be okay with that-" It hurts. She can't stand the fact that that happened.

"We've been fighting almost every day for the past month, Thalia. I think I know when it's time to call it a quits…"

"That can't be literal, can it? I just saw you guys luahging the other day at the park and – It's not about Luke, is it." It's a rhetorical question. She knows it is.

"Maybe, it just doesn't feel like Luke's my best friend anymore and it just-"

"Just what? Randomly seem to fall out of love with the guy you've liked for so long, and then just day dream about Percy and stare at him? It makes sense, you know."

"Makes sense what?"

"That you miss him." She nods.

A minute goes by before Annabeth replies.

"Yeah." It's a look of defeat on her face. Only Thalia has seen Annabeth so weak. She wonders how he's been doing these past 10 months.

She breaks up with Luke. Turns out Luke has been cheating on her. She cries a little bit when she realizes that her relationship ended so poorly, but loses it when she has that feeling of emptiness that comes up every time she thinks about losing her best friend. It's not Luke she's sad about.

* * *

It's lunch again when Thalia surprises her.

"So… Annabeth. I hear Percy's looking for an Algebra 2 and Trigonometry tutor, and you just so happen to have a perfect grade in that class so I was thinking-"

"Thals, drop it. It's not like I'm going to make a fool out of myself by just thinking Percy would want to see me again. I freaking ditched 2 and a half years of friendship for an 18 month-long relationship that ended terribly."

Thalia nods her head like she understands. "You know, he misses you."

Annabeth thinks about what she's just said. It could be true, since Percy is Thalia's cousin, but it hurts too much to think about.

"Then whoever you heard that from gave you false information."

"Oh come on Annie, stop being so negative and take the tutor job. It pays, you know."

"I don't want the money."

"Come on, them just take it. Come on. Come on." Each "Come on" given with a little nudge to the shoulder.

"Thals, stop nudging me, it's annoying-"

"Are you gonna do it? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Alright, alright, I'll do it, just leave me alone."

"Boom my job here is done."

Annabeth laughs a little when Thalia stands up and makes a fool out of herself by running around in circles pretending to be a superhero. She also is terrified when Thalia runs off, yelling "I'll let him know!"

She's frozen in horror, as she watches Thalia merge into the crowd of hormonal teenagers.

"Wait Thals, I take it back! I change my mind! Thals! Thals- wait… You're going to talk to him about ME?!"

* * *

It's late at night when Annabeth is checking her Twitter, seeing all the photos of the upcoming World Cup venues and the cutest soccer players at the World Cup that she gets a text from Thalia.

-**Annie, great news! I told him that he has a tutor and to meet him tomorrow the library!**

**-**_Wait… He accepted me as his tutor?_

It's a few minutes that Thalia hasn't responded that she starts to get impatient. The churning in her stomach doesn't die down easily.

-**Technically…**

-_Thalia Marie Grace…_

-**Annabeth Catherine Chase**

_-What did you tell Percy?_

-**That I got him a tutor and that she's really good**

_-So he doesn't know it's me. Great. *sigh*_

-**Sorry.**

She takes a breath. She can't do this. This can't be happening.

-_I don't think I can do it Thals_

-**Just make the most out of the opportunity.**

Annabeth stares at her screen for 5 minutes. Make the most out of the opportunity. She falls asleep, dried tears on her face, phone on with the last message of their chat: You know, Percy still cares.

* * *

It's a few days later that she's confront by Thalia.

"Why haven't you shown up? Percy's been in the library the whole week studying by himself."

"I'll go today, I promise."

She sees Thalia's disappointment.

"You better."

* * *

It's 8 minutes till school's over. Annabeth has this nauseous feeling in her stomach. What if he just… Walks away? Could she handle that? What if he just throws her aside like she did to him? What if-

The bell rings. She rushes out of her computer science class and heads straight towards Thalia's locker.

"Thals, I don't think I'm ready. I feel sick."

"Annie, calm down. Don't just ignore your problems and run away like a scaredy cat. Just try talking to him again."

She sighs. "I know I can't run away. It's… it's been a while, but things like that just don't disappear."

"I know. You're going to be late to the tutor session. Just don't think about it."

She thinks about it the whole 15 feet there.

* * *

It's 10 minutes she's been waiting in the library. It's also 10 minutes that she's been staring at a confused Percy, who still seems to have no idea who his tutor is. It's after 3 minutes of blank staring that she realizes Percy's gone missing.

"Where'd he go-"

"Hey… Annabeth."

"Ah! Hi Percy!" She yells. It's not the best response she's had, but the laughter echoing from Percy makes it all worth it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She can hear the laughter that he's trying to contain, and it makes her lips move upward and her walls move down.

"Do you happen to know where Thalia went? I'm supposed to meet up with a tutor and since you're Thalia's best friend I just thought that you'd might know who the tutor is because-"

"Percy, you're rambling." She's smiling big now. It's hard not to when she sees him smiling.

"Sorry." Percy's trying to not laugh.

They end up laughing for a minute. A minute of whole hearted laughing.

"It's fine," Annabeth says, whipping away the tears from laughter. "I'm your tutor." She says it too fast. Her eyes are shut tight and nervousness and fear shine through her actions.

There it is again. Silence. If Annabeth could take a knife and stab silence she would-

"I…? What? I didn't catch that."

"I'm your tutor." She thinks she needs to get help with her issue of talking too quickly and softly when she's nervous. Her eyes are still squeezed tight and her knuckles are turning white. She hopes he doesn't mind but, she hopes she walks away so she can feel better and get what she deserves.

There's another 20 seconds of silence that feels like forever.

"Oh…"

"Yeah… I mean, you can leave if you want to, it's not a big deal."

"I… I just didn't think you cared about me."

She cringes when she hears that last part. It feels like her heart strings tore apart.

She doesn't reply. She turns her head away and tries to not let out the hurt sound she wants to let out. She tries to remain as clam as possible so she doesn't break down right there. Her heart aches.

It's after a minute that she hears a chair moving and him sitting down beside her. Her breathing is out of rhythm. So are her heart beats.

"So… About that tutoring. I'm having trouble on lesson 4.8, with the whole trigonometry identity equations thing, and…" She turns to him and is greeted by that smile she hasn't seen in over 10 months. She knows he can see her red eyes and tears, but it's a start, she thinks. It's a start.

* * *

The next lesson gets cut short when Annabeth almost throws up when Percy says something about throwing away important things. She can't do this, even if those important things are his notes from Math class. She can't talk to Percy knowing the things she's said to Percy before they took separate paths. She can't stand herself for saying those things. She can't stand the fact that Percy is nice to her. So she runs out of the library, telling Percy that she doesn't feel well and that they'd continue the lesson tomorrow. She thinks she sees sadness on his face, and that makes her want to puke even more. She runs into the girl's bathroom.

-_Thalia… I don't feel well. Like I almost threw up today when Percy said something about throwing away important things._

_-_**Are you alright? Do you need me to pick you up? Where are you?**

_-I'm well enough to get back home. I swear I'm fine, I just don't know if my heart is. I feel so broken and empty and sad_

_-_**I'll be at your house in 20 with ice cream and cookie cake**

_-You're the best, you know that? Don't forget to pick me up a Frappuccino too! _

_-_**No, I don't understand how you can like coffee**

Thalia shows up with 2 cups of Frappuccino.

* * *

It's later that night after Frozen that Annabeth somehow got Thalia to watch that Annabeth finally decides to tell Thalia. Thalia didn't ask, but Annabeth figured it's now or never.

"Thalia, do you want to know what happened that night?" It's soft and sounds like a broken whistle.

"I mean… If you're ready." Thalia turns off the T.V. The spotlight is on her, and she hates it.

A few minutes pass by before Annabeth gets enough composure to talk about it.

"I just… I said the nastiest things to Percy when Luke told me to never talk to Percy again. Luke was jealous of Percy and I just didn't understand why Luke was so mad at me. I couldn't' stand it. I told Percy to screw off and leave me alone. I called him names that shouldn't even be in the English language and he just sat there, taking it all in. God I even broke the friendship necklace we made on our first anniversary of being best friends. I broke it in front of him and threw it in the garbage! Thals I fucked up so hard and-"

She punched the walls until it broke. She couldn't take it. She felt Thalia's arms circle around her and pull her into a hug.

"Shhh shhhh, it's fine Annabeth. It's Percy we're talking about here. If there's one guy who is willing to stand by you even though you did him wrong, it's Percy."

"You're right, but I just can't shrug off the look on his face that day, Thals. You should've seen it. He looked like he had his heart broken twice and his eyes… His eyes Thalia, I've never seen them so dull and red. I just… I can't forgive myself." Thalia can barely hear the last half of what she says. It hurts her. Hurts her that she doesn't think things like this are mendable. She wishes she could just wish everything back to the way it was 20 months ago before Luke.

Thalia sighs, nods her head, and speaks. "It sounds like you need to talk to Percy about this, not me."

"I can't Thals, I know I should but I can't bring myself to-"

"You can do it when you're ready. Just keep doing the tutoring sessions."

* * *

It's a few lessons before she starts to feel the tensions ease between them. She thinks it's better. She doesn't bring up her and Thalia's conversation like Thalia suggested because she feels that it would jeopardize their blossoming friendship.

"So I just plug in tan(x) instead of sin(x)/cos(x)? Hello? Annabeth? Are you there? Ring ring, planet Annabarg, are you there? I copy-?

"Really Perce, planet Annabarg?" She laughs a little bit, she smiles when she sees Percy laughing back.

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking,"

"Idiot."

"Wise Girl." And then it hits her. He called her Wise Girl. She tears up a little bit, smiling as wide as can be. "Did I do something wrong or-?"

"No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just… been a while. Since you called me that I mean." Then she does something so irrational and so unlike Annabeth she wonders how she even came up with the idea. "Doyouwantogowatchthenewtransformersmoviewithme?"

"… Huh? What?" The confused look on Percy is priceless and she bursts out laughing, Percy still looking like a lost dog.

"I said, do you want to watch the new transformers movie with me."

"No." She's somewhat happy and disappointed. Happy that she didn't have to make a fool out of herself and that she got what she deserved but disappointed that he said no. She feels a sharp ache in the middle of her chest. "But I do want to watch 22 Jump Street… So, we can go together?" It sounds more like a question than it does a statement, but that doesn't stop Annabeth from tackling him on the group and yelling "Yes!" at the top of her lungs, even though it doesn't exactly answers Percy's question-statement thing.

"Okay, okay, I'll text you later. Same number, right Annabeth?" He laughs a little as they get off the floor, her cheeks a little too warm.

"Yeah." It's soft, but it sounds strong.

She nods too fast. The warm dance that her stomach does doesn't die out for the next half an hour after he leaves.

* * *

-_Thalia… What have I gotten myself in to…_

_-_**What?**

_- I asked Percy to see the Transformers movie with me, but we're going to watch 22 Jump Street instead. You're going to have to watch the Transformers movie with me._

-**What… You asked Percy on a date?! ARE YOU CRAZY WOMAN?!**

Annabeth smiles at the word "date," but dies of laughter when she reads the next text.

-**I refuse watching transformers with you**

* * *

It's during the movie that she hears Percy laugh like the good ol' days. Like a genuine laugh. A full on, eyes squeezed tight shut, mouth wide as can be, interrupting the whole theater laugh. One that sends warm butterflies down your stomach if you're Annabeth. She's used to it by now. Her head slowly bends over until it rests on the headrest that is Percy's shoulder. She feels his arm wrap around her, but feels the distance she put between them closing. She feels like she's got her best friend back.

"That was such a funny movie, I can't believe a movie like that could exist!"

Annabeth can't tell what she's smiling more from, the movie of Percy's fascination with the movie. They're shoulder to shoulder and this. This feels fixable. She can feel her heart strings being played one by one, almost as if love were a beautiful song. And her overheated cheeks. She can feel those too.

Things gradually get better. She can sense that Percy has the same feelings as her. Whenever they walk, their fingers are interlaced with each other's. Whenever they sit, they snuggle into each other's sides, even if it isn't convenient at all. The feelings of falling in love hit Annabeth. It happens slowly and, naturally, all at once.

* * *

It's after their last lesson when Percy decides to walk Annabeth home that he notices how sad she looks.

"Hey hey hey. Annabeth. Annabeth. Annabeth." Each Annabeth given with a nudge on the shoulder.

Annabeth, smiling quickly, looked up. "Yeah?"

"Cut that fake smiling thing out, will you? What's bothering you?"

Annabeth stops walking. She… She's not ready for this conversation. She's not ready to bring up those past wounds despite the scars they left on her heart.

"Nothing."

"Really. Tell me. It's fine. Just say something."

"Percy, don't get mad at me for this but… How the hell can you just stand here next to me and not feel any anger towards me for what I did to you? Don't you understand? I treated you like horse shit! I don't understand how someone like you can exist!"

The last part came out wrong. There's that face again, she thinks. She can feel her wounds reopening and her eyes burning. Tears are free falling from her face and as Percy tries to wipe them away she runs away. She runs all the way to her house, leaving a sad and confused Percy. It's when she gets to her bed does she realize that she did the same thing 10 months ago.

* * *

It's 4 days before she has any serious thoughts of talking to Percy again. She sees him at the library after school sometimes. She can't stand the fact that he has another tutor again, especially someone like _Rache Dare._ She can't take it anymore and decides to run out of the library. She goes into the courtyard. She hears footsteps and knows who it is instantly, but doesn't look at him.

"Are you okay Annabeth?"

"Why does it matter to you? It's obvious I don't deserve you." It's muffled because she says it into his chest as he embraces her, but he makes the words out.

"You never let me explain myself that day."

"There's nothing left to say. I got the memo. You hate me."

"That's not it at all, Annabeth. Look, I'm not over it until you're over it. Okay?"

"Okay."

"You're right. I did hate you. I hated you because you made me feel like the world revolves around you."

"What? I don't-"

"Wise Girl, let me finish."

She nods.

"How can you just hate someone who you've had a crush on for years? I mean, I didn't choose to hang out with you when you came here because you were destined to be my best friend. I-"

Soft. That's one word to describe she'd used to describe his lips. And pink. Very pink.

"Hey Perce?"

"Was… Was that real just now?" It comes out as "wuz… wuz tha-eal-ow." It's hard to talk clearly when someone has their lips on yours, especially if that person is Annabeth.

"By the way, the feelings mutual." Percy stares at her. She breaks out laughing and puts her forehead on his chest. Percy's arms engulf her in a grip that she knows all too well.

"Good thing the feelings mutual Annabarg."

"I swear Percy, if you call me that one more time, I'm finding a new boyfriend."

"Okay… Annabarg."

"I hate you."

"I think it's quite the opposite."

"Since when did you get smart too?" She asks, her eyes closed, cheeks hot.

* * *

She can't say he's a perfect boyfriend, but she can say she's never been happier, especially when Percy sacrifices his time to watch a movie with his girlfriend.


End file.
